Florio - a flower boutique
The client asked me to develop a name, a logotype, a visual identity, and a complete branding for the flower boutique based in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The task was to stand out from the rest of the market, the name should have started with 'Flo-', and a tulip should have been incorporated in a logo as a reference to one of the symbols of Almaty city.
Coming up with a name I did market research first of all figuring out local and global trends, target audiences, and marketing strategies. Being unique both for global and local markets was one of the most important criteria of the research. It should have also been short and sounded well both in all three languages used locally (Russian, Kazakh, and English). After developing a concept and strict criteria - I started generating names using a mind map. After a few iterations applying filters developed earlier - 'Florio' was the perfect name that the client approved right away.
The concept has been structured and had strict criteria based on the market research and business needs - so the work had already been half-done. The actual design process was inferior to those criteria. I decided to use monochromatic visuals of flower engravings. The main idea behind it was not to make visual identity outperform the product - flowers themselves. I decided that flowers should speak the color of the brand and the rest of the visual identity should speak solid typography language. Thus, it was easy to decide that the logotype should have been based on a solid and classy typeface. It would be a big challenge to develop a whole new typeface for the project so I decided to start with a few letters used in the name. Inspired by curves and lines of stems, leaves, and petals found in flowers I tried to mimic those floral hints within a typeface while keeping it strict and classy. After that, I started working on a logo mark, where the initial idea and a demand for a 'tulip' reference to the beautiful city of Almaty made a symbiosis of a type and a flower an organic and congruent choice.